-- Between Faithfulness to Ideals & Creativity --

I intend to point out the directives of the last General Chapter on spirituality, charisma and mission, in order to bring out the main points we should stress in formation, to make sure that the Consolata Missionary who is getting ready to be the life and soul to a second century of evangelization of the Institute may be faithful creative to the charisma of Blessed Allamano.

To instil the gospel, mission and charisma values is a sublime art, where the only human resources are not enough. For this reason I ask for all of you that wisdom which means capacity to discern, responsible pedagogy, availability of dialogue, and above all openness to the Spirit.

1. Missionary - Disciple of Christ
“And he went up to the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and have authority to cast out demons...” (Mc 3,13-15).
This passage contains the main and essential elements of our vocation. We remain Jesus disciples for all our life and the success of our mission will be in proportion to the capacity to remain faithful to his teaching.
Before drafting a formation programme with the candidates we should assure ourselves that they are “called” by the Lord and that in them there is that perception of faith and that friendship bond with Christ, which reveal that “something” has happened to their lives.
Once this has been asserted, we should accompany and help the young men in the sequel path. Not as teachers but as con-disciples, because Jesus is the teacher.

-- To let ourselves be attracted by Jesus
Not for an academic course, for economic interest or attractive career. Jesus disciple binds himself to the person of the Master, adheres to his teacher, imitating the life project, for ever.
We may ask ourselves: Which is the itinerary to let the youth be attracted by Christ in the 21st Century?

-- Abandoned everything and followed him
The disciples should break with the past securities in order to follow Jesus.
What do our candidates leave behind when they knock at the house of formation? Do we test them to see that they have left behind everything? Maybe we don’t test seriously, giving the idea that Jesus sequel is the beginning of a human career.

-- Fraternity life
The sequel needs fraternity life, but the brothers are those given to us by Jesus. Community of persons who don’t believe an impossible thing to place their life to the service of others, those who overcome the daily difficulties with the forgiveness and that have the strength to star afresh every morning.

-- To the service of the Kingdom
For us the Kingdom is “mission”; i.e. Jesus mission. Not our mission but His; by Him planned, willed and “paid”.
The Kingdom of God makes progress though the two element of the mission: “preaching and casting away demons”.
The young man who asks to be a Consolata missionary must clearly understand that his commitment for the Kingdom, coincides with the mission of the Institute in the complete availability to go out of one’s country and be sent where greater are the needs and challenges.
Since the beginning of the formation “iter” our students must be put to the test of the “3 ad” our students must be put to the test of the “3 ad”: ad gents, ad vita, ad extra.

2. Missionary - capable of harmonious integration between consecration, brotherly life and mission
Our Institute has finally put to an end the futile discussion whether we Consolata missionaries are first missionaries and the religious or vice versa.
The General Chapter of 1993 has stated: ….



The reaching of the objective is of crucial importance for an harmonic formation, in which none of the three aspects must take absolute priority, but must proceed together. So it is not appropriate that in the Noviciate should be stressed only the consecrated life and the vows, without touching the elements related to community-family and mission.

The formators should keep in mind the following requirements on each of the three aspects:
1°. Should not permit that the communities lose the taste for a well done prayer. John Paul II sates that there is a need for the “Art of Prayer”, that one sign of times is a renewed need of prayer, that every community [more so a religious community] should become and authentic school of prayer.
We should remember that the weakening of our prayer life after the noviciate means to carry a formation project to complete failure.
2°. The daily celebration of the Eucharist, united to the frequent use of the sacrament of reconciliation, is the indispensable means which allows the youth to reach the harmonious integration of the three elements: consecrated life, community life, mission.
3°. The Lectio Divina is becoming the meditation of the consecrated person. It permits to embody the two values on which the Founder used to insist: the Word of God and the daily meditation. To this regard our Constitutions say: “Daily meditation, a very important moment of personal prayer, is an absolute necessity for the deepening of our inner life, and also for a true participation in the liturgy. We must ‘consider as wasted’ the day in which we omit our meditation.”
4°. I feel that at time our seminaries are considered “good” when the time tables and he programme function in an orderly manner, without, perhaps, giving attention to the family spirit which should be visible.
5°. The zeal and passion for the mission are obtained putting together various elements: prayer alone is not enough. the study is not sufficient, and even the pastoral activities are not enough.
The seminary then has to compensate with fitting initiatives and experiences to keep alive in the youth the missionary zeal.

3. Missionary - capable to draw from the well of the charisma
For a Consolata missionary, charisma means that original and genuine core of Blessed Allamano’s legacy, which with the passing of times doesn’t deteriorate or grow old, and that the various cultural elements shouldn’t and must not modify or annul.
Henceforth the your religious must willingly and with open heart learn to read it, interpret it and live it. In the formation he must find a capable person to lead him in quenching his thirst at this spring.

-- The charisma needs inculturation
This point should be kept in mind by the formators, considering the fact that they have to do with the internationality of their communities. It is therefore necessary that they have a clear idea which is the fundamental and inalienable core of the charisma.

-- Let us learn to make an open and ecclesial reading of the charisma, because it is not a legacy which should remain inside our communities: it is a gift of the Spirit, which has as boundary the whole world. So with courage let us make it known, propose it and share it.

-- The charisma, properly lived creates the family
The family spirit, to feel well identifies with a community, the sense of belonging to a religious family --- important elements stressed by the founder --- don’t arise from a vague sentimentalism or from a mere thought. Living it fully, the youth identifies naturally with all the values and ideals of our religious family.
Some recent requests to leave the Institute on the part of young missionaries, has saddened us, but at the same time has made us question ourselves if their belonging to the Institute had deep roots. A family cannot be abandoned like that...

4. Missionary - of today and for the modern world
I feel disheartened every time I read about the modern anthropology which denies the value of being and the sense of being, whose possible prayer seems to be: “Nothing and Amen.” Such an anthropology give rise in the youth lack of security, mediocrity, scepticism, escape into the private, ethical subjectivity. On the general level, then, it is easily stated that history doesn’t teach anything, because it is just a series of happenings put one after another.
In this context we have weak relationships at family and social levels. The youth that knock at the doors of our communities, should be helped to become strong and well equipped for the great mission challenges, capable to feel the passion for the people to whom they will be sent, identified with the not easy vocation of a consecrated life to the mission.

We may ask ourselves: how can the formation we give be an adequate answer to the many difficulties posed by the world? How can we guide our youth to become missionaries of the stature desired by the Blessed Allamano?

I have no ready answers but I offer some ideas taken from more experienced people:
-- The religious vows must necessarily make reference to the present culture.
With the vow of poverty we give evidence to the values that “economicismo” ignores.
The religious obedience is our answer to the wrong conception of a freedom without laws and restraints.
In the same way our chaste love preaches that there is an alternative to pleasure, and that there is joy in this way of loving.
-- Our lives of consecrated persons must give evidence to the values of the past, like: attention to the person, Human dignity, defence of human rights, the meaning of true freedom.

5. Missionary - an expert on communion
In the N.M.I., John Paul II has challenged the Church to be house and school of communion. This suggests that the missionary should be an expert of communion and dialogue with the other religions and the society. To be able to do that the missionary must start having strong experiences of fraternity inside his own community.

Here are now some objectives to which every community should adhere:
-- Our students should be helped to understand that if they want to become Consolata missionaries they must exclude the possibility to become “free lancers” i.e. independent in their work; community life and work should be considered a great benefit offered by the Institute.
-- Every community should not renounce to moments of daily prayer, communal weekly meetings, life and work plan, clear role of animation of the local superior. It must be understood that these means are not for students in the seminary but for every Consolata missionary.
-- The communities must be signs of communion, real “school amoris”. As a matter of fact, we are not sent only to preach, but first of all to give testimonial to the brotherly love “so that the world may believe” (Gv 17,21).
-- Our communities must be rich in communication. In meetings at every level, with periodical publications, quick correspondence and frequent visits of those in charge.
-- Our communities are becoming always more international. The internationality should not be understood as a fact, but must imply a choice of value and lead to an attitude of life.
-- The vows must be taken in a communitarian dimension and sustained by the brotherly love. This is a challenge that the formators must take to help the youth in giving adequate answers.
Of the vows of obedience, chastity and poverty everyone must learn to give an account not only to God, but also to the proper community. The future communities must use the term “family” not only to include the brothers bound by the religious vows, but also the Consolata missionary Sisters and the Lay Consolata Missionary.

6. Missionary - minister of consolation
The Founder wanted to put the Consolata in the name of the Institute. And to this regard he was saying that “we carry the title as a name and surname” (Conf I, 568), the “gender and the species” (VS 687). And used to add: “The name that you bear must urge you to become what you should be...” (VS 688).
It is up to today’s formators to propose this charismatic value, not only to hand it over to the young generations, but also to reread it in a creative manner in today’s context and in sentry with the Church’s teaching.

Now I recall and expound briefly the more important ways of this consolation ministry of ours:
-- Evangelization
We, Consolata missionaries realise that our consolation ministry is put into practice foremost in announcing Christ to the peoples and giving testimony to the Gospel with our life.
The formator should pay attention that no other doctrine or teaching may affect this essential and constitutive element of our vocation, our “supreme aim”, and diminish its importance to the eye of our youth.
The study and the efforts of the youth in the academic preparation must have as exclusive objective a better ability for evangelization. It wouldn’t be in Allamano’s spirit the pursue of academic qualifications as an end in itself.
-- Choice of the poor
“We believe that the mission is a preferential choice of the poor, to alleviate their suffering and help them in obtaining justice and an opening to God” (IXGC, 32). The choice was already of the founder when he sent us to Africa and asked us to raise the environment.
-- Liberation and human promotion
On the occasion of our Centenary, John Paul II, in the message he sent to our Institute, says: “To the explicit announcement of the Gospel, must be added the effort of liberation and of human promotion.”
Such activities though must be done in new forms, in syntony with the teaching of the Church and the sign of times.
-- Justice and Peace
“These dimensions are essential parts of the evangelization ad gentes and of our consolation ministry” (XGC, 46). This ministry presupposes “choices and concrete gestures of solidarity toward the poor and the commitment to carry out reconciliation” (XGC, 53).
-- Marian presence
Our ministry of consolation finds an incomparable model in Mary Consolata. To serve in this field means not only to offer our services to the needy, but also to stay near the poor in a style that we would call “mariano”.
The Blessed Founder has greatly embodied these marian attitudes and continues to propose them to us today. They invite us to embark on a journey which leads us from the centre to the outskirts, to be only what, by vocation, we are called to be: mere service, gratuitous love, always experiencing “la beatitudine di essere secondi.”

7. Missionary - capable of creative faithfulness in the context of internationality and “incontro” between the generations of the Institute, today
The young missionaries who come out from our seminaries after completing the basic formation, become part of missionary communities characterised by a marked internationality. They will also find themselves interacting with confreres of previous generations, numerous and active in the community life and in the apostolic choices.
The basic formation must take into account such reality and must equip the youth in a way that their move from a protective reality as the seminary to a successive one, may not be traumatic but taken in a serene and mature way.
The living together of various cultures that we call “internazionalità” is considered by us a value characterising our family: “Our Congregation is international and includes members from different countries. A missionary must learn to live and work with confreres from different cultures, and strive for unity in those aspects which re characteristic of our family” (Const 23).

Starting from these principles I give some useful indications for the formators:
1°. Facing new challenges, we get the chance to make progress toward a greater maturity. The important thing is to apply well the evangelical principle: of “losing to win” or “dying to live.” This was the method used by Jesus in the formation of his disciples.
2°. The missionary of every generation cannot be an isolated person in his decisions, because only through comparison, request for counsel, communal reference, right consideration of other people’s view will assure consistency and security to his missionary life.
3°. Another important dimension will be the sense of belonging to the community, to the Circumscription, to the Institute.
4°. Empathy is the gift which makes me open to the other and permits the other to enter into my world; and in this vow I’ll be able to give and receive at the same time.
All these qualities that enter into the life of our students may constitute a guide to judge the grade of their maturity and of their qualification to face the important stages of their vocation, as the Perpetual Profession and the Sacred Ministries.

8. Missionary - capable of permanent formation
Why do we talk of permanent formation in this meeting? Because formation, either it is permanent or doesn’t exist at all. Besides the roots of global and permanent formation must be put during the basic formation.
-- We note that few are the missionaries who are interested in a constant and deep study of themes about our life and the mission. Even the theological journals are rarely read.
-- Many are the young missionaries who ask o better their academic preparation. To us it seems that their motivations are often in the desire to have another academic qualification.
-- It is a fact that often the permanent formation is identifies with the academic studies.

Speaking to formators with responsibility of basic formation I raise the following questions:
-- What can we do to enduce the students to desire to deepen themes that have to do with our vocation and mission?
-- How to tell our students to understand that wisdom is more important than knowledge, and that the formation must nourish all the dimensions of our life and not only the mind?
-- What means to use in making sure that after the basic formation the missionary continues to feel always in formation?

Now I recall some passages from the chapter on Permanent Formation, which we find at the end of our Ration Studiorum 1993:
---
---
---

9. Missionary - a person ready to dialogue
On the inter-religious dialogue the Acts of the XGC say: “Every missionary should consider inter-religious dialogue as a facet, an activity and a new method of the mission today. Let him form himself in he theory of dialogue and in the attitudes that are necessary to practice it. Let him shed any attitude of self-sufficiency, closeness, ideological intolerance and fundamentalism, and set himself in a state of conversion so as to live in depth and with all conviction. He should educate people to respect religions” (pp. 80-81).
1°. Dialogue with ourselves
A true communication towards others must begin within oneself. Everyone must know the truth about himself, about his values, limits, obstacles which may eventually hinder constructive relations with others.
To this context I stress the importance that may have, in the formative stage of the youth toward a dialogue with himself, the use and practice of the meditation, the capacity of a personal life examination, the personal life project, the spiritual director and an authentic life of personal prayer.
2°. Dialogue with others
First of all I mention the barriers which may obstacle the communication:
-- Depraved speech
-- Ambiguous speech
-- La “sordità” i.e. scarce sensibility toward others.
An authentic dialogue must
-- be interesting
-- favour healthy interpersonal relations
-- aim to form and not only to inform
-- convey something meaningful for life, the ideals and the other’s interests
-- open the way to a deeper understanding of the other.

Starting from the basic formation, the missionary must be trained to have a true communication with others, using traditional means like community meetings, life revision, life projects, lectio divina and also the modern means of communication.
With regard to these modern means, I must worn you of the real danger in the improper use of them. I ask all of you, formators, to state or suggest clearly the guiding lines for all our houses of formation. It is necessary to educate the youth in the right use of those modern means of information, which are very precious if used correctly but at the same time very dangerous if used improperly, even to the point of becoming for some a real drug.